There was excitement among members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, as they converged for the weekly meeting, on Wednesday.
This is even as the government has said 101 girls and a boy were released unconditionally.
Also a delegation of three ministers, Minister of Culture and Information, Lai Mohammed, Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd) and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Khadijah Bukar Abba-Ibrahim, had been deployed to the trouble spot, in Dapchi, Yobe State.
First to show her excitement was Abba-Ibrahim, who announced openly on stepping into the Council Chambers, venue of the meeting, that she was the happiest person on earth.
She got handshakes and embrace from colleagues, congratulating her on the good news.
The ministers were heard telling one another that it was the best news ever to start the day.
The meeting is being presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in attendance.
Osinbajo said the Christian prayer and most ministers including the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Mallam, who said the opening Muslim prayer.
Abba-Ibrahim told State House Correspondents, “I’m very excited today. My name is Hon. Khadijah Bukar Abba Ibrahim, the minister representing Yobe State. I’m exhilarated, I’m happy. You just describe anything today, that is what I feel because the Dapchi girls have been released. We are very very happy. We have achieved what we had gone out to achieve and we thank the almighty God for His mercies.”
On the news that some of the girls were dead, she said, “as far as I know now they are taking a roll call. So, we cannot ascertain how many have passed on or whatever. We will find out much later on what the casualties are.”
On her advice to parents as regards the girls going back to school, she said, “I will advise them to to continue sending their children to school, we as a government will just fortify the schools in order to make them safe fortune children to actually go and learn.”
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Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, who predicted that the girls will be released a week ago, said, “Basically, I want to speak on the impression that people had that we cannot get the girls released. If you can remember the last interview I had with Channels Television, I said in two weeks, two months or less we are going to get the girls released and this has happened.
“So this is as result of the efforts of Mr. President and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces for the support he has been giving to us and the output is showing now.”
On the negotiations that went in before the release, he said, “I did say even if you are going for negotiations if you are not doing so from the point of strength then you cannot make it”
Minister of Culture and Information, Lai Mohammed, speaking more on development, described the release of the girls as a thing of joy for all Nigerians.
Asked to speak to the allegation by one of the parents that his daughter was not released because she refused to renounce her faith, he said, “You see, all we can tell you is what we have gotten from our sources on ground, as this things develop we will let you know.
“The girls were released unconditionally, no money changed hands. The only had one condition, that they will return them to where they picked them. So in the early hours of today, they did return the girls and most of them went to their parents homes.
“As of now I can confirm that 91 girls and one boy have been released. The event is developing. Many of the girls that were released were not dropped in one place. Some where dropped on the road and they went back naturally to their parents Houses. They are now being asked to come and be documented at a center and as at five minutes ago, I was told 91 girls and boy had been documented.”
Asked how come a boy was among those released when the girls were abducted from a girls school, Mohammed said, “I can tell you that is authentic. Whether they picked the boy or not I can’t hazard any guess but don’t forget even in a girl school, which is a boarding school there will be parents, they are teachers who can have children amongst them. But what I have been told is that 91 girls and one boy have been documented.”
